Martin McCluskey

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Parliament's party history for this member: Labour (4 Jul 2024 – present).

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1. 14 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

   Draft Boiler Upgrade Scheme (Amendment to the Energy Act 2008 etc.) Regulations 2026

   I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Boiler Upgrade Scheme (Amendment to the Energy Act 2008 etc.) Regulations 2026. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. The draft regulations were laid before the House on 13 July. The boiler upgrade scheme is the Government’s flagship scheme for supporting the decarbonisation of heating in homes and small non-domestic buildings across England and Wales. Through the scheme, households can receive grants towards the installation of eligible low-carbon heating technologies, primarily heat pumps, helping them to overcome the up-front costs of moving away from fossil fuel heating systems. The draft regulations are an important enabling step towards the future inclusion of heat batteries within the scheme, helping to ensure that consumers can benefit from a wider range of low-carbon heating technologies. In 2025, the Government consulted on expanding the range of technologies supported through the boiler upgrade scheme, including the potential introduction of heat batteries. For members of the Committee who may be unaware, heat batteries are a type of thermal energy storage system that can use low-carbon electricity to generate and store heat for use when it is needed. Following the consideration of consultation responses, the Government confirmed our intention to support heat batteries through the scheme, once appropriate standards and consumer protections are in place. The draft regulations amend section 100 of the Energy Act 2008, which provides powers for the Secretary of State to establish “a scheme to facilitate and encourage renewable generation of heat” in England and Wales. At present, those powers apply only in relation to specified technologies and energy sources. The draft regulations add thermal energy storage systems to that list, providing the necessary legislative foundation for thermal energy storage systems, including eligible heat batteries, to be supported through Government schemes made under those powers, such as the boiler upgrade scheme. It is important to be clear that the draft regulations will not themselves introduce grants for heat batteries into the boiler upgrade scheme. Instead, subject to Parliament approving the regulations, the Government intend to introduce a further statutory instrument to amend the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (England and Wales) Regulations 2022 and enable support for eligible heat batteries through the scheme. The Government are supporting the future inclusion of heat batteries to increase consumer choice, recognising the potential to provide an alternative low-carbon heating solution in properties where heat pump installation may not be suitable. The draft regulations also make a technical amendment to the 2022 regulations to clarify the powers available to the scheme administrator, Ofgem, where an installer has received an ineligible payment. The amendment will allow amounts owed to be recovered through a combination of repayment and offsetting against future grant payments, helping to strengthen scheme administration and safeguard public money. In conclusion, the draft regulations ensure that the legislative framework underpinning the boiler upgrade scheme can accommodate thermal energy storage systems. They represent an important enabling step towards the future inclusion of heat batteries within the scheme, supporting greater consumer choice and helping more households across England and Wales to transition to low-carbon heating. I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.

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2. 14 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

   Draft Boiler Upgrade Scheme (Amendment to the Energy Act 2008 etc.) Regulations 2026

   I welcome the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth to his new role. I am sure this will be the first of many Committees in which we will face each other. Turning to the hon. Member’s points, he obviously heard what I had to say yesterday about departmental budgets. What is in the explanatory memorandum is still dependent on future departmental budgets. They are obviously ultimately decisions for the Treasury, in Budgets and spending reviews, so they will be decisions for the Chancellor at the end of this month. On the shadow Minister’s broader point about the cost of electricity versus the cost of gas, the previous Government and this Government have both prioritised the delinking of electricity and gas, which is important to encourage the uptake of these technologies. I gently say to him that his party had 14 years in Government in which to reduce the spark gap and did not make much progress. Since we have been in Government, we have made sure that the reduction in levies has fallen heavily on the electricity bill rather than just on gas, and also adopted contracts for difference and encouraged companies on to CfDs so that there are fixed costs rather than the high costs linked to gas for certain generation. We have already taken significant action in the last couple of years on delinking, and we will take further action down the line. On the question of standards, the Government have been clear that support for heat batteries will be introduced only once the appropriate product and installation standards are in place. They will need to be certified under the microgeneration certification scheme, just as heat pumps are now, and comply with the MCS design and installation standards. There is good reason to introduce this statutory instrument now, to make sure we are in a position to move quickly once those standards are in place. The hon. Member may already know that the standard for air-to-air heat pumps, which have been in legislation for some time, is still being worked on by MCS and the accreditation bodies. Passing this legislation will enable us to get the technology in place, so that we are ready to support heat batteries as soon as possible once the standards are in place. On the hon. Member’s questions about the methodology and why we are, in his words, supporting heat batteries ahead of other forms of electric heating, the responses to the consultation we ran in 2025 showed broad support for expanding the scheme to additional electric technologies. Heat batteries were the technology most frequently highlighted by respondents. In answer to the questions about value for money and minimising running costs, they pointed to the potential benefits associated with heat batteries, including the ability to take advantage of charging at off-peak times and to be installed as a like-for-like solution for many gas or electric boilers, unlike some other solutions. I am sure the shadow Minister has read the Government response to the consultation, which includes the many of the answers to the questions he has asked today. It was only after that deliberation that we decided to include heat batteries in the boiler upgrade scheme. On his final question around the value of the £2,500 grant, we arrived at that number largely because it was judged to be the best amount, given the lower cost of heat batteries versus heat pumps. We think the £2,500 grant will bring the cost of installation of a heat battery to around £6,000, about the same level for heat pumps, once the £7,500 grant is taken into account. Part of the reasoning is to avoid distorting the market by creating an uneven playing field for heat batteries versus heat pumps. I thank the hon. Member for West Dorset for his support for the SI. There is much common ground between our parties on these issues. He has talked about the ambition behind his party’s 10-year plan. I would say that the warm homes plan is indeed an ambitious programme for retrofitting homes across the country, with billions of pounds behind it. I welcome and agree with what the hon. Member said about data. The Department is making moves around the comprehensive environmental data archive, using and enhancing smart meter vectors, to ensure that data is used to inform proper assessments of homes. That might in future take us beyond what is available through energy performance certificates, which is really valuable. There is work going on in that area, which I would be happy to discuss with the hon. Member, if that is useful. The regulations are an enabling measure. They do not by themselves introduce support for heat batteries through the boiler upgrade scheme, but they do provide the necessary legislative foundation to do so through future secondary legislation. They also support the effective administration of the boiler upgrade scheme by clarifying Ofgem’s powers to recover ineligible payments, strengthening the protection of public money. These regulations are an important step forward in delivering the Government’s commitment to support heat batteries through the scheme. Question put and agreed to.

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3. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

   Warm Homes Scheme: Cooling Measures

   This summer we all felt the impact of climate change, whether in our homes, workplaces or schools. The warm homes plan will ensure that cooling measures, as well as heating measures, are available for the most vulnerable homes. Additionally, all eligible households in England and Wales can benefit from the expanded boiler upgrade scheme, which now includes air-to-air heat pumps, which are able to heat and cool homes.

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4. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

   Warm Homes Scheme: Cooling Measures

   I can give the hon. Gentleman that assurance. He will know that we are currently reviewing part O of the Building Regulations on overheating in order to ensure that, in the future, buildings are well prepared for the temperatures that we may face and are able to adapt to climate change.

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5. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

   Warm Homes Scheme: Cooling Measures

   I would like to praise my hon. Friend for the work he has been doing and for working collaboratively with us to put some gentle pressure on the accreditation bodies to ensure that we see progress. I will be meeting the relevant bodies soon, and we hope to be able to unlock this at pace.

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6. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

   Warm Homes Scheme: Cooling Measures

   We fully support the warm homes plan and the boiler upgrade scheme. We have had a record-breaking year on the boiler upgrade scheme, with over 8,000 applications in July, which is more than double what we saw in the previous year—not least because of homes that were off grid deciding to adopt a heat pump, and I am sure there are many in the hon. Lady’s constituency. We continue to support the boiler upgrade scheme, and I am sure we will see continued uptake of it over the coming months.

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7. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

   Warm Homes Plan: Implementation

   The warm homes plan is already delivering in communities across our country, and last month the Secretary of State announced the devolution of that plan. Giving power to local leaders and communities to make decisions about the areas they know best is essential to upgrading homes on the scale and at the pace that we need. It is key to bringing down bills, reducing fuel poverty and creating skilled jobs.

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8. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

   Warm Homes Plan: Implementation

   I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for all the work that he is doing to champion his constituents in Blackpool South. Around 600 households in his constituency received home upgrades in 2025-26. I encourage any of his constituents who want advice on how to upgrade their home to go to gov.uk and search for energy grants—they will find information there. I will soon launch a new tool to make it even easier for people to find support.

   Hansard source
9. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

   Warm Homes Plan: Implementation

   We have guaranteed that the grant will be there until March next year. Decisions for the future of that scheme and the uplift are for the Chancellor to take later at the Budget. That uplift has led to a significant increase in the number of heat pump applications, and applications to the boiler upgrade scheme—there were over 8,000 in July alone—so we can see the success that it is having, and the support that it is providing to off-grid homes.

   Hansard source
10. 13 Oct 2026·Parliament·Martin McCluskey

    Warm Homes Plan: Implementation

    I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his new position. He would not expect me to stand here and make commitments that will be made by the Chancellor at the Budget at the end of this month. The hon. Gentleman’s party is trying to make us more dependent on fossil fuels, and to turn back the clock on the future homes standard—changes that would leave people across the country tens of thousands of pounds worse off.

    Hansard source

2024 General Election: Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West

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